APUSH Chapter 10: Launching the New Ship of State
Chapter Summary Alexander Hamilton got the US on a solid foothold. With the Bill of Rights quickly ratified, the most prominent issue the new nation faced was finance. Secretary of State Alexander Hamilton developed a plan that included starting a national tariff, starting a tax on whiskey, setting up a national bank, and paying off national debt. Politics quickly fell into two camps: those who followed Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republicans) and those who followed Alexander Hamilton (Federalists). Turmoil broke out in Europe with the French Revolution, namely between England and France. The US nearly got sucked into European issues, but both Washington and John Adams kept America out of war. This was best for the US. Chapter Outline *In 1789, the new US Constitution was launched *America's population was doubling every 20 years, 90% of it still being rural, 5% of which lived west of the Appalachians *Vermont became the 14th state in 1791, and Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio followed soon after *Visitors looked down upon the rough pioneers, and these westerners were restive and dubiously loyal *America was heavily in debt and paper money was worthless *George Washington was elected president by the Electoral College in 1789 *His Secretary of State was Thomas Jefferson, his Secretary of Treasury was Alexander Hamilton, and his Secretary of War was Henry Knox *Many states had ratified the Constitution on condition that there would be a Bill of Rights, and many Antifederalists had criticized the Consitution for its lack of a Bill *The Bill of Rights was adopted in 1791 *The Judiciary Act of 1789 created effective federal courts *John Jay became the first Chief Justice of the United States *Born in the British West Indies, Alexander Hamilton's loyalty to the US was often questioned, even though he claimed he loved his adopted country more than his native country *He urged the federal government to pay its debts of $54 million off at face value (Funding at Par), plus interest, as well as assume the debts of the debts of the states, totaling to $21.5 million *Virginia felt it was unfair that the entire nation would assume the huge debts of states like Massachusetts, when their own state had little debt *Virginia compromised to let the government assume all of the states' debts if the District of Columbia was built on their land *Alexander Hamilton was unworried by the nation's huge debt, as he saw it as an asset in that the more people the government owed money to, the more people would care about what would happen to the country as a whole *To pay off some of the debt, Hamilton first proposed custom duties, the first one being passed in 1789, imposing a low tariff of about 8% on the value of dutible imports *In 1791, Hamilton secured an excise tax on a few domestic items, notably whiskey *Hamilton proposed a national treasury, to be a private institution modeled after the Bank of England, to have the federal government as a major stockholder, to circulate cash to stimulate businesses, to store excess money, and to print money that was worth something, all of which was opposed by Jefferson for being unconstitutional *Hamilton believed that anything not forbidden in the Consitution was therefore permitted (loose constructionalism), whereas Jefferson believed that anything not permitted in the Consitution was therefore forbidden (strict constructionalism) *Hamilton also believed that a bank was necessary and proper, and he evolved the Elastic Clause (necessary and proper clause) which would greatly expand federal power, whereas Jefferson believed that a bank should be a state-controlled item, since the 10th Amendment states that powers not delegated in the Constitution are left to the states *Hamilton won the dispute, and The Bank of the United States was created by Congress in 1791 *In 1794, the Whiskey Rebellion flared up when western Pennsylvanian farmers revolted against Hamilton's excise tax *Liquor and alcohol had often been used as money in this area, and they believed they had been unfairly singled out *They cried taxation without representation, since many of them were in unestablished states and therefore had no seat in Congress *Washington sent an army to the area, but the rebels had scattered *This exemplified the government's new strength and earned Washington much respect, but Antifederalists criticized him for preparing such a large army for only a small rebellion *Hamilton's policies seemed to encroach on states' rights *The rivalry between Jefferson and Hamilton evolved into two political parties, the Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans and the Hamiltonian Federalists, which actually helped strengthen the US government, as it helped balance power and ensured that there was always a second choice to the ruling party *The French Revolution greatly effected America, as Americans were first overjoyed with their similarities, but as the revolution turned radical and bloody, Federalists disapproved and looked nervously at the Jeffersonians that felt no revolution could be carried out without bloodshed *America was sucked into the revolution when France declared war on Great Britain and the battle for North American land began again *Jeffersonians wanted to enter the war on the side of France, but Hamilton leaned toward siding with Britain, as doing so would be economically advantageous *Washington knew that America was weak and war would only lead to disaster, so he issued the Neutrality Proclomation in 1793, which proclaimed the US's official neutrality and warned Americans to stay out of the issue *Jeffersonians were furious *Soon afterwards, French citizen Edmond Genet landed in the US as a representative *He was cheered by Jeffersonians, since they supported France, so he was led to believe that the Neutrality Proclomation didn't truly reflect the feelings of Americans *He equipped privateers to plunder British ships and to invade Spanish Florida and British Canada and he threatened to appeal over the head of Washington to sovereign voters, to which he was then kicked out of the country *America's neautrality ended up helping France, since only in that way could France get needed American foodstuffs from to the Carribean islands *Although France was mad that the US didn't help them, officially, the US didn't have to honor its alliance from the Treaty of 1778 because France didn't call on it to do so *Britain still had many posts in the frontier, and they supplied Indians with weapons *In 1795, the Treaty of Greenville had the Indians cede their vast tract in the Ohio country to the Americans after General "Mad Anthony" Wayne crushed them at the Battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20, 1794, which was when Americans realized that British guns were being supplied to Indians *British commanders also seized ~300 merchant ships and kidnapped seamen into their army *Jeffersonians cried for war, but Washington refused as he knew it would destroy the Hamilton financial system *In a last-ditch attempt to avert war, Washington sent John Jay to England to work something out; however, his negotiations were sabotaged by Hamilton, who secretly gave the British the details of America's bargaining strategy *The Jay Treaty with England resulted in Britain repaying for lost money in recent merchant ship seizures (impressment), but they said nothing about future seizures or supplying Indians with arms, and America would have to pay off its pre-Revolutionary War debts to Britain *Southern Jeffersonians were furious, as they would have to pay while the northern merchants would be paid *On the bright side, war was avoided *In 1795, the Pinckney Treaty with Spain gave Americans free navigation of the Mississippi and the large disputed territory north of Florida *It was actually the pro-British Jay's Treaty that prompted Spain to be so lenient, as Spain didn't want America buddying up with Britain *Washington's Farewell Address warned against political parties and against building permanent alliances with foreign nations *Although Alexander Hamilton should have become president, his financial plan had made him unpopular, so it was John Adams against Thomas Jefferson, to which Adams won and Jefferson became vice president *France was furious about Jay's Treaty, calling it a flagrant violation of their alliance, and so they began seizing American merchant ships *In the XYZ Affair, John Adams sent three envoys to France, where they were approached by three agents who demanded a large fine just for talking to Talleyrand *The envoys decided that it wouldn't be worth it, so they returned, cheered by Americans for doing the right thing *Americans called for war against France, but Adams stayed neutral and plunged his popularity for the good of America *An undeclared war confined to the seas raged on for over two years, where American ships captured 80+ French ships *Knowing that war with the US would only add another enemy to France, Talleyrand declared that if another envoy was sent to France, they would be treated with respect *In 1800, three American envoys met with Napoleon, who was eager to work with the US *They signed a treaty that ended their alliance in return for Americans paying the claims of its shippers' as alimony *Federalists scorned poor people, whereas Jeffersonians welcomed them *In the Alien Laws, Federalists raised the residence requirements from five to fourteen years, violating the traditional American policy of open-door hospitality and speedy assimilation *Another law allowed the president to deport dangerous aliens during peacetime or jail them during wartime *The Sedition Act provided that anyone who impeded the policies of the government or falsely defamed its officials would be liable to a heavy fine and imprisonment *Even though it was unconstitutional, it was passed by the Federalist majority in Congress, and conveniently written to expire in 1801 to prevent the use of it against themselves *Matthew Lyon was imprisoned for writing ill things about John Adams *Jefferson feared that Federalists might wipe out more freedoms, so he wrote a series of legislation that Kentucky approved in 1798-1799, and James Madison wrote another series of legislation that Virginia approved *They stressed the compact theory, which meant that all the states were the final judges of the laws passed in Congress, they should have the right to nullify laws *Federalists argued that it was up to the Supreme Court to nullify legislation, a procedure that was adopted in 1803 *Most Federalists were pro-British merchants, manufacturers, shippers, and they recognized that foreign trade was key *Most Democratic-Republicans were pro-French farmers and insisted on no privileges for the upper class *Jefferson sympathized with the common people, advocated the rule of all people that weren't ignorant and saw slavery as a way to avoid landless voters by providing them with necessary labor, and championed free speech *As 1800 rolled around, the disunity of America was mamking its existence very much felt